Editorial: Discovery  Roadside trash on Mars?

This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sept. 28, 2012, is a mosaic of images taken by the telephoto right-eye camera of the Mast Camera before the rover arrived at Rocknest. Mars Curiosity is about to sip its initial taste of the red planet's sand. But first, NASA's rover has to play bartender to make sure the dry dust is shaken, not stirred.The rover's scoop will dig into the sand Saturday. Then the action starts. Mission sampling chief Daniel Limonadi said the end of the rover's arm will shake vigorously and noisily for eight hours, like a Martian martini mixer gone mad. That will vibrate the fine dust grains through the rover chemical testing system to cleanse it of unwanted residual Earth grease. (AP Photo/NASA)

For future archaeologists, the American roadside will produce a wealth of material to study. Indeed, it already produces a wealth of material that state highway departments, augmented by minor criminals doing community service, work hard to remove.

On the verge of any heavily traveled U.S. highway, even the least observant traveler will notice the massive collection of roadside stuff that has been flung from or fallen off our vehicles -- hubcaps; rusted exhaust pipes; mufflers; fender liners; bumpers and pieces of bumpers; shredded tires; crushed auto glass; broken taillights; America’s great gift to civilization, the beer can; garbage bags; and the litter ensuing when the family car doubles as the family dining room.

What brings this to mind is a dispatch from NASA noting that the highly successful Martian rover, Curiosity, discovered a shiny object on the ground.

If it’s not from Curiosity, then we really have a mystery on our hands. But the craft bristles with scoops, drills, antennas, cameras, air samplers and the like, so the most likely theory is that this object is something that fell off Curiosity. Even the great wits at NASA probably balked at the idea of having Curiosity surreptitiously toss out an empty pizza carton so it could be “discovered” later on.

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(What a great report to Congress that would be: “We didn’t discover evidence of life, but we did discover evidence of large cheese with pepperoni.” Obesity doctors might advance this as one theory as to why there are no more Martians.)

Still, this mysterious object may represent a breakthrough of sorts: The first known piece of roadside litter in outer space.